I had to drive into Boston for a meeting. I tried to plug the address into my GPS. Nothing. I tried again. Nothing.

Missing the meeting because of a malfunctioning GPS wasn’t an option. I looked at a MapQuest, figured out a route and headed on my way.

Afraid . . . → Read More: Life Is A Journey With or Without GPS]]>
Ughh! My GPS wasn’t working.

I had to drive into Boston for a meeting.  I tried to plug the address into my GPS.  Nothing.  I tried again.  Nothing.

Missing the meeting because of a malfunctioning GPS wasn’t an option.  I looked at a MapQuest, figured out a route and headed on my way.

Afraid of Getting Lost

I was nervous.  How could I ever find my way through the narrow streets of Boston without my trusted guide telling me to turn right, turn left or make a legal U turn?  The knots in my stomach tightened as nervousness turned into fear when I thought about being late for the meeting.

To keep my nerves under control, I focused on what was right in front of me.  Traffic was heavy and needed my full attention.  I couldn’t worry about the Boston part until I was there.

“Life is a journey, not a destination.”

Today its easy to have your journey dictated to you by others.  Whether it’s driving directions from a GPS, how to videos on YouTube or how to market our business from an online course, you’ve may have stopped creatively problem solving in many areas of your life.

But, Life, as Emerson says, is all about the journey.  It’s not about the destination.  Once you arrive, the next piece of Life’s journey unfolds, as one of my clients shared about opening their business.

First all they wanted to do was to leave the corporate world and start their own business.  Once the business was up and running the destination became establishing regular clients.  After that it became adding their first employee.  Today it’s about growing their business nationally.

Each checkpoint was at one time a destination.  Once there, the vista opened and a new destination presented itself.

What if you turned off your GPS for a while?

What if you turned to your own inner instincts to guide your actions?  Does that make you nervous?  Do you trust your instincts?

The key is the same as when I was driving into Boston.  Stay focused on what is directly in front of you.  Pay attention to the details and signs on the side of the road.  If you get lost or are unsure if you’re moving in the right direction, ask for help/directions.  then get back on the road.

When you know your destination, the journey is about moving forward one step at a time.  Even with a bad sense of direction, you can still find your way, learn new things and meet helpful people along the way.

I made it to Boston.

Even without a GPS, I easily made it into Boston.  I followed the directions I had, my instincts, and asked for help when I needed it.

Try turning off your GPS for a while and see what you discover.

I love the world of the entrepreneur…I also love roller coasters.

This is my second go ’round as an entrepreneur. To tell you the truth, all of my jobs have had an entrepreneurial aspect to them. That’s what drew me to them.

Being an entrepreneur can be as thrilling . . . → Read More: The Entrepreneurial Roller Coaster]]>

photo credit: OliverN5 via flickr

I love the world of the entrepreneur…I also love roller coasters.

This is my second go ’round as an entrepreneur.  To tell you the truth, all of my jobs have had an entrepreneurial aspect to them.  That’s what drew me to them.

Being an entrepreneur can be as thrilling as riding a roller coaster.  There is the anticipation of what’s around the corner, days the fly by and even moments of terror when you don’t think you’ll make it, but then you pull through in the end.

A Roller Coaster Ride Ends In About 3 Minutes  

Entrepreneurs can become addicted to the thrill.  When you are addicted to the entrepreneurial rush, the lull between hills can seem boring.  So you search for the next hill and create scenarios to keep the adrenaline pumping.  I hate to break it to you, but you can’t do this forever.

I learned the hard way that staying in adrenaline mode 24/7 doesn’t energize.  It does the opposite.  It drains you.

To Avoid Burning Out, Pace Yourself

Even roller coasters don’t run 24/7.  Cars are taken down for maintenance, the park closes, and even the entire ride is shut down from time to time.

You need to do the same.  Downtime or maintenance time for you could be doing the books, upgrading your computer system, cleaning out your contact list or organizing the office.  You might even consider vacation or a personal day off.

Breaking the addiction can be hard, but when you do you’ll find your business will grow healthier and stronger…and so will you.

There Will Still Be Roller Coaster Moments

Don’t worry there will still be the roller coaster moments such as designing a new product, gaining a new client/customer, or growing.  When you take some downtime, you’re much more prepared for the up’s and down’s to come.

Maisie is going to school!

After 5 years, I decided to work with a fabulous dog trainer, Nancy Bradley. Maisie isn’t out of control, but as some of you know, she has a mind of her own.

On her first visit, Nancy shared insights into Maisie’s behaviors. . . . → Read More: Being Vulnerable Is As Easy As “Down”]]>

Maisie after a hard day at school

Maisie is going to school!

After 5 years, I decided to work with a fabulous dog trainer, Nancy Bradley.  Maisie isn’t out of control, but as some of you know, she has a mind of her own.

On her first visit, Nancy shared insights into Maisie’s behaviors.  When Maisie sat between us, Nancy told me she was protecting me.  When Maisie whined, it was because she was unsure.

Maisie had difficulty with “down.”  The first time Nancy demonstrated “down” with Maisie, she told me  for a dog, “down” is a submissive and vulnerable place.  When Maisie whined and put out her paw,  Nancy said she was protesting.  When Maisie looked behind her, Nancy said she was checking to see if it was safe.

Maisie wasn’t the only one learning.

Maisie taught me a valuable lesson that day.  When we’re in business, we struggle with our own “down.”  Whether it’s trying a new way to market our business, adding a new product/service, or even just asking for help, you feel vulnerable.

Like Maisie, you may protest silently through your actions or verbally by complaining.  You may look around and check your environment to make sure it’s safe.

Reward good behavior.

Nancy taught me to reward Maisie’s good behavior.  If she couldn’t do “down,” we would go back to something she could do like “sit.”  When she sat, reward.  When she looked, reward.  Then we’d try down again.

You need to reward your good behavior too.  Trying new things or asking for help takes courage.  Someday’s are harder than others.  On those days, take smaller steps.  Reward yourself when you take positive step.  Then try another.

It’s easy to begin a tirade of negative self talk if you can’t do “down” right away.  On those day’s think of Maisie.  Do you think she would ever do “down” if I called her stupid, dumb and yelled at her?  Absolutely not.  Neither will you.

Instead by slowly rewarding good behavior, “down” is achieved painlessly.

Asking for help

One of my big “downs” is asking for help.  I was reminded of this by a friend last night.  For some reason, I feel as though I should be able to do anything.  If it isn’t working out, instead of asking for help, I dig in deeper trying to work harder.

Over my career, I’ve learned this never, ever moves me forward.  Instead I get stuck in a negative cycle.

When help is offered (and I finally accept it), I wonder what was all that drama about.  How much easier it was when I got out of my own way and accepted help.  Part of my re-affirmations for spring is to ask for help more often.  I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

Maisie likes down

Once Maisie mastered down, she learned to enjoy it.  Now when I say down, she flops right down.  She rests here. She knows I’m in control and she can take a load off.  Down is good.

What is your “down?”  What vulnerability do you struggle with that is keeping you back from reaching your potential?  Do you reward yourself for the small things?

Nancy Bradley is the owner of Bradley’s Canine Education and can be reached at 508-286-2248 or bradleyscanine@comcast.net

Today’s Featured Business is Ego Media owned and operated by Emily Richmond. Ego Media is a full service design studio to help businesses brand themselves.

Emily specializes in video production for small business owners and had just completed her own studio. She is passionate about what video can do for businesses not only . . . → Read More: Featured Business: Ego Media]]>

Today’s Featured Business is Ego Media owned and operated by Emily Richmond.  Ego Media is a full service design studio to help businesses brand themselves.

Emily specializes in video production for small business owners and had just completed her own studio.  She is passionate about what video can do for businesses not only from a branding perspective, but helping them be found on the internet.  If you aren’t sure what you need to do to start using video for your business, Emily is a great resource.

Her tip for any small business is to remember that you are your own worse critic.  She sees a lot of people not tapping into video because “they don’t like to watch or hear themselves.”  Because we view our own videos or listen to our own recordings with a more critical voice, we see the imperfections.  Emily reassures us that our clients aren’t as critical as we are.

She urges people not to hold themselves back because they feel self conscious.  Instead start small with someone you trust and explore the waters.  It can help to grow your business in many new ways.

To find out more about the services Emily offers, check out her website.  While there you’ll want to check out her video gallery to view her work.  Her YouTube Channel also has more examples of how businesses can use video.  You can contact Emily through her website or at 508-386-3343.

Click here to listen to our interview.

Jack Canfield uses it.

Albert Einstein relied on it.

Oprah’s success was built on it.

What Is It?

It is your intuition. You know, that under utilized muscle you dismiss when it comes to your business.

Intuition for entrepreneurs can be the secret to your success especially when it . . . → Read More: Intuitive Decision Making Isn’t Just For Psychics Anymore]]>

photo credit: Joelk75 via Flickr

Jack Canfield uses it.

Albert Einstein relied on it.

Oprah’s success was built on it.

What Is It?

It is your intuition.  You know, that under utilized muscle you dismiss when it comes to your business.

Intuition for entrepreneurs can be the secret to your success especially when it comes to decision making.  In your busy life,  making decisions, especially big ones can be overwhelming.  Which direction should you take your business?  Should you move to that new location?  What about that new product or service you wanted to add?

You are faced with personal and business questions you don’t always have the answers to or even the information to make the decision, yet no one can make the decision but you.

Intuition Fills In The Fact Gaps

By tapping into your intuition to help make decisions, just like we talked about in goal setting, you are engaging your full brain in the process.  Your logical brain gathers the facts while your creative brain fills in the information gaps.

You Were Never Taught

The problem for most of us is we were never taught how to integrate our intuition into the decision making process.  We were taught how to do a pros and cons list, how to search for details, but never how to listen to our intuition.

All resources we need are in the mind – Theodore Roosevelt

So here’s a short how to list to help you get to know your intuition a bit better.  In future articles, we’ll talk about how to use your intuition on a regular basis to make decisions.

What You Need to Know About Your Intuition.

1. Your intuition speaks to you in words, images, dreams, feelings and many other ways.
2. Your intuitive message lasts only a short time:  ”Recent research in neuroscience indicates that an intuitive insight – or any new idea – not captured within 37 seconds is likely never to be recalled again. In 7 minutes, it’s gone forever.” ~ Jack Canfield, The Success Principles.
3. You need quiet time to tap into your intuition.
4. You may not get the answer you’re looking for during a meditation, but by providing space, the answer may come to you later in the day.

Dust Off The Cobwebs

It’s time to stop putting your intuition on the back burner when it comes to making business decisions.  Take some time to get acquainted with your intuition.  Dust off the cobwebs and put it to work.

If you’re interested in learning more about Intuitive Decision Making, join us for our upcoming Intuitive Decision Making webinar for entrepreneurs.

The Story of the Laughing Buddha

The Laughing Buddha was a cheerful Buddhist monk, Hotei or Pu-Tai, who traveledspreading happiness and blessings to the ordinary. In his small bag he carried sweets and gifts for children. He has become a symbol of protection . . . → Read More: Become a Laughing Buddha: Sit and Smile]]>

Picture of my Laughing Buddha Reminding me to smile every day

The Story of the Laughing Buddha

The Laughing Buddha was a cheerful Buddhist monk, Hotei or Pu-Tai, who traveledspreading happiness and blessings to the ordinary.  In his small bag he carried sweets and gifts for children.  He has become a symbol of protection for children, the poor and the weak, as well as, happiness and abundance.

Modern Version of Pu-Tai

Elizabeth Gilbert introduces a modern day Laughing Buddha in her book Eat, Pray, Love Ketut Liyer, the Balinese medicine man.

One of my favorite scenes is when Ketut describes his version of yoga to Liz.

“Why they always look so serious in Yoga?  You make serious face like this, you scare away good energy.  To meditate , only you must smile.  Smile with face, smile with mind and good energy will come to you and clean away dirty energy.  Even smile in your liver.”

I have to admit there are times when I forget this simple lesson.  The world seems too hard, business isn’t coming in the way I planned or tensions are high at home.  Smile.  A very simple business and life lesson.

News Flash: Science Proves Smiling Is Good

In the article 10 Hidden Benefits of Smiling, the author sites several medical, psychological and sociological studies for smiling.  Did you know that in studying pictures of 1952 baseball players, the men who smiled lived a average of 10 years longer? (That’s number 10 on the list).

According to Positive Psychology News, there are actual physiological changes that happen when we use our facial muscles. Frown and adrenalin is released.  Smile and serotonin (feel good hormone) is released.  Even better, when you smile at someone else, they are much more likely to smile back.  Think about it, you’ve just given them a gift of feeling better just by smiling at them.  That’s one of the reasons we love looking at babies.  They smile.  We smile.  They mimic back and there is a general feel-good cycle going on.

Smiling is a natural stress release.  You don’t need anything but a few muscles.  It doesn’t take a lot of training or practice.  You can start right now.

How Often Do You Smile?

If smiling is so great, how often do you smile?  I’ll guess it’s not as often as you could.  I’ll also guess you tend to smile when you’re around others and not when you’re alone.  How can you make smiling a regular practice?

• Keep reminders around.  Remember you can’t help but smile when you see others smile.  Having pictures of smiling family and friends in your office and home will help you automatically smile.
• Take smiling breaks.  Just like you take a coffee break, take a break to smile.  Working on a project, smile when you’re half way through.  Car pooling, smile on the way to pick up your first passenger.  I recommend at least one smile break an hour.
• Inspire a smile.  Sometimes you need encouragement to smile.  Listen to a song you know makes you smile.  Watch a movie that makes you smile.  Read a favorite book.
• It’s okay to smile when your alone.  Most important, give yourself permission to smile when you’re alone.  I know it sounds silly, but telling yourself its okay to smile will ward off the “I bet I look stupid sitting here smiling” message your ego is trying to send you.

Become a Laughing Buddha

Today become your own Laughing Buddha.  Put on a smile and share it with everyone you meet.  Just like the Laughing Buddha, you’ll be spreading happiness and blessings wherever you go.

Photo credit: bass77 via flickr

Today’s Featured Business is Davis Financial, owned by Steve Davis and located in Mansfield, MA. Steve has been in the financial planning business since 1990 when after a career in banking he chose to join his father’s financial planning firm. His father used to say, “he had the ‘wisdom’ of experience and (Steve) offered . . . → Read More: Featured Business: Davis Financial]]>

Today’s Featured Business is Davis Financial, owned by Steve Davis and located in Mansfield, MA.  Steve has been in the financial planning business since 1990 when after a career in banking he chose to join his father’s financial planning firm. His father used to say, “he had the ‘wisdom’ of experience and (Steve) offered the “continuity” of youth.”

Steve’s website is full of fantastic information including a full Learning Center with articles from current market updates, to retirement planning, tax planning, risk management and the list goes on.  If you want a more personal view of financial planning tips, you have to check out his blog!  Steve has a way of breaking complex topics down to something you can talk about over coffee.  Many of his blogs are featured in the Mansfield Patch in his regular column, Talking With Davis About Money Matters.

Steve shared some of his wisdom during our interview.  He talked about the importance of small business owners to  set money aside for retirement.  We had a great discussion of how this can be put off because other things are more important especially when starting a business.  Steve shared some special opportunities smaller business owners can take advantage of to save for the future.

If you want to learn more about Steve’s practice, check out his website or give him a call at 508-337-9400.  Don’t forget to check out his regular column in the Mansfield Patch either.  His latest article is 21 Years Later in Mansfield.

You can also listen to our conversation here.

Based on the latest HubSpot blog and some of their research, the new Facebook Timeline for Brand pages (Business Pages), have an affinity for manual posts versus scheduled posts from sites like Hootsuite.

Hubspot discovered once the Timeline feature was added to their Brand Pages, in their words, “the . . . → Read More: Is Facebook Penalizing Automated Posts?]]>

photo credit: 34128007 via flickr

Based on the latest HubSpot blog and some of their research, the new Facebook Timeline for Brand pages (Business Pages), have an affinity for manual posts versus scheduled posts from sites like Hootsuite.

Hubspot discovered once the Timeline feature was added to their Brand Pages, in their words, “the HubSpot social media team instantly noticed how our likes, shares, and comments — in other words, our overall engagement — tanked.”

They hypothesize that Facebook is attaching a different weight to manually generated posts versus automated posts. Because many of us are using Hootsuite and other tools to automate our posts we may be doing more harm than good.

This causes us to think a bit more about what and how much we automate.  As we discussed in last week’s post about automating posts to LinkedIn, automation should not be a set it and forget it, but instead monitored on a regular basis.

You can read more stats from the HubSpot article here: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/32124/Facebook-Content-Published-Via-Third-Party-Tools-Suffers-234-Fewer-Likes-New-Data.aspx#ixzz1quTKqO8

Today’s Featured Business is Extra Hands for Your Events, owned by Gigi Halsing. Her business offers party and event staffing. Basically you can be a guest at your own party. It’s a fabulous service that can make a difference for a host or hostess.

Gigi just doesn’t do small gatherings. She staffs weddings, . . . → Read More: Featured Business: Extra Hands for Your Events]]>

Today’s Featured Business is Extra Hands for Your Events, owned by Gigi Halsing.  Her business offers party and event staffing.  Basically you can be a guest at your own party.  It’s a fabulous service that can make a difference for a host or hostess.

Gigi just doesn’t do small gatherings.  She staffs weddings, bar/bat mitzvah’s and even corporate events.  She provides the servers, bartenders, waitstaff or general party help.  Gigi’s over 25 years in the restaurant industry shows in her clients’ comments:

“Everything went off without a hitch.”  “It was the first party that I actually enjoyed myself because I didn’t have to worry about anything.” “Had you not been there, I would have been too stressed out to even consider sitting down and relaxing.”

Gigi’s tip for other small business owners is to get out there an network.  It’s all about meeting new people.  Her advice for those that don’t like networking or are a bit shy, start to network small in groups like the chambers of commerce or women’s business networking groups.  Make it part of your regular activity.

If you want more information about Gigi and her business, check out her website.  If you have an upcoming event, I personally recommend Gigi and her staff.  Contact her today to find out how she can help you.

You can listen to my full interview with Gigi of Extra Hands for Your Events here.

I Love Theme Parks

If I haven’t said it before, I’ll say it now, I love theme parks. Once you walk through the gates, you escape to far away lands like Jurassic Park, Harry Potter’s world or an African jungle. I guess part of me still believes in magic.